Hide and Seek with Azula
by keylee
Summary: Ty Lee, Azula, Mai, and Zuko play hide-and-seek. Of course, hide-and-seek is a lot more interesting when you're playing with Azula, as Mai and Zuko are about to realize...


**Okay, I wrote this a long time ago, and THOUGHT I published it on here, but apparently I didn't. Huh. Hope you guys are ready for some adorable Maiko fluff! **

"One, two, three..."

Azula's golden eyes peeked around the column from where she was counting. She knew she wasn't supposed the open her eyes until she reached the number thirty, but since when did she ever play by the rules?

"Four, five, six..."

Her eyes instantly noticed the blur of pink that flew by and disappeared behind a half-naked bush.

_So typical,_ Azula thought as she rolled her eyes before shutting them once more. Ty Lee would certainly be easy to find, but Azula preferred more of a challenge in this game.

"Seven, eight, nine..."

Her eyes opened again, however, this time she tried squinting this time to make it seem as though they were closed. Ever the slow one, Zuko was still running in circles, unsure of where he should hide. By the looks of it, he was becoming quite frustrated: his fists were clenched to the point that it almost looked like he was going to firebend, and he was so focused on finding a place to hide that he didn't even notice the tree root that was on the ground, directly in his path.

"Ten, eleven, twelve..."

Just as expected, his left boot struck the surprisingly hard root and face planted into the coarse grass beneath him.

Azula immediately turned away, desperately trying to hold back a snort of laughter at her brother's terrible clumsiness. Unfortunately, her efforts were useless, because Zuko had heard her anyways. His eyes widened and his face reddened in embarrassment when he realized that Azula had seen him fall.

"Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen..."

She poked her head around the corner again, wondering if that klutz had gotten up yet.

"No cheating Azula!" Zuko yelled angrily as he shot a small blast of orange fire in her direction.

She whipped her head around the pole, guarding her hair against the fire with both of her hands. Azula smirked as the fire just missed her; instead, it hit the column due to Zuko's lousy aim.

"No firebending at the person's who's IT!" she shot back. Smiling to herself, she realized that Zuko only had fifteen seconds to find a good place to hide...

_Whatever, _she thought as she turned around and actually resumed counting with her eyes _closed_. Zuko would _never _find a good enough spot now...

Fearing that there was no decent places left to hide in such a short amount of time, Zuko raced over to the tree that was directly over the turtleduck pond. His boots were severely scraped on the ascent up, but that didn't matter at the moment. He gave everything he had into getting up there as quickly and quietly as possible; even if it meant that he would have several blisters and scrapes on his hands later.

Just as he reached the top, Zuko grabbed onto what looked like a black stump on the upper part of tree to pull himself into a comfortable position. However, as he did so, he heard a small gasp of surprise. Immediately, the black thing retreated and the raven-haired head of a girl poked out curiously from behind a dense patch of leaves.

"Mai?" Zuko asked in wonderment. Judging by the look on her face, she was just as stunned to see him up there as he was seeing her. Both kids glanced down to Zuko's hand, which was still resting on what was clearly Mai's boot. He pulled his hand away as Mai blushed slightly and awkwardly diverted her attention elsewhere.

"You know," she whispered softly, her eyes still pretending to be overly focused on the leaves to the left of her face. "Two people aren't supposed to hide in the same place. It's against the rules."

Zuko snorted. "You think Azula ever follows the rules?"

Mai glanced at him doubtfully for a moment before she shifted back to make more room for Zuko on the already-cramped tree branch. "I guess you're right."

Off at the south end of the courtyard, Azula had finished counting and was casually strolling over the grass, pretending to look as though she actually cared about playing this game for fun. Her goal was always to pinpoint where everyone was hiding before choosing the next "it." This time, however, she was having some difficulty in finding Mai. Even more surprising to her was that Zuko had actually managed to hide out of sight as well.

Azula walked several paces down to the turtleduck pond, and then paused under the shady tree, trying to refocus on the task ahead of her. She knew she shouldn't be taking this long; her intensely competitive nature was urging her just to go wild. However, if she wanted to catch her prey, she must be agile...and nimble...

Just before leaning back against the tree to give herself time to strategize, a single leaf fell from the tree's branches above her. Mai and Zuko, who had been silently watching Azula as she sauntered across the terrain, widened their eyes in fear. Their hearts pounded ferociously against their chests, but their breathing was shallow and inaudible. Out of the corners of their eyes, they clearly understood the expression on the other's face: _Uh-oh._

Sure enough, the traitorous leaf fell just in front of Azula's nose, catching her attention immediately. Her eyes narrowed as she reached out and caught the leaf. After a brief examination, she smirked and set the leaf on fire with a slight flick of her fingers. There was no sound or motion at all above her head. But she _knew_.

Much to Mai and Zuko's confusion, Azula simply shrugged as she walked to the north side of the courtyard. She was out of sight for now, but at least she hadn't found them. Zuko's stiff shoulders relaxed slightly, and Mai let out a small sigh of relief. If they were lucky, then Ty Lee would be discovered first.

Zuko looked up at Mai and gave her a cheesy grin. She was about to smile back, but instead, her eyes bulged in shock and her mouth curled into an "o" shape. Zuko cocked his head questioningly at her, but she had no time to warn him.

"FOUND YOU!" Azula screamed with such exaggerated force that Zuko jumped at least two feet into the air; clearly startled by Azula's sudden appearance behind him.

"Azula!" He fumed as he landed painfully onto the tree branch several inches behind him.

Azula would have laughed, but the most peculiar thing occurred: just as Zuko reconnected with planet Earth again, his back slammed into Mai. She too, was caught off-guard by this, and fell through the two branches that she was sitting between in what seemed like slow motion. Noticing Mai's departure from the tree, Zuko's head whipped around in panic. Without thinking, he immediately dove for her, sticking his arm out as far as it could possibly reach; just barely catching her by the wrist in time.

Mai's head darted back and forth between Zuko and the murky water beneath her in terror, almost as though she couldn't believe that he had actually managed to catch her in time. Zuko wasn't very strong, and trying to hold up his friend with just one hand took every ounce of strength that he had.

"Hang on...Mai..." he grunted between gasps for air. He tried to pull his right arm out to help hold onto her, but if was stuck beneath his chest, holding him steady. In the background, Azula was giggling with amusement, but Zuko had to ignore her for now. If he let go of Mai, she would definitely fall into the water. If he didn't, his arm would surely give out from the sheer exhaustion of trying to singlehandedly hold all of the weight of a girl his age. Every muscle burned and ached, but since Azula decided that she would rather watch from the sidelines than get up there and help, Zuko had to think of something on his own.

It was at least a ten foot drop from here. Mai looked positively terrified; all of the stories about tiger crocs living in the pond that Azula had taunted her with in the past were coming back to haunt her.

_Snap._

Zuko jerked his head up. His whole body was shaking from the immense pressure, and his ankles throbbed from trying to hold himself steady around the trunk of the tree. The noise must have been his joints cracking or something...

_Snap._

Something wasn't right. It wasn't him or his body making the snapping noises, but it was the tree itself.

Slowly, but surely, Zuko felt the limb of the tree sink closer to the ground. Mai was still gripping his hand as though her life depended on it, but her eyes widened even more at the sounds of the tree snapping from the ends of where Zuko was laying on his chest.

Finally, there was a giant snap, and the branch completely broke off.

Mai let out a scream of horror as she fell backwards into the water. Zuko and the giant limb quickly followed; hitting the water immediately after Mai was completely submerged. Just before Zuko hit the surface, he distinctly heard a roar of Azula's cruel, mocking laughter up in the tree from which he fell. He ignored her again and tried very hard to twist himself to the side in midair; not that there was much time for that, but he definitely didn't want to crush Mai underwater!

Mai was only under the water for a few seconds, before she managed to kick her way up to fresh air. Zuko poked his head up just a second after she did; spitting out the water that he had accidentally swallowed when he had crashed face first into the pond.

Both kids looked furiously up towards Azula, who was carelessly swinging her leg back and forth on the sturdy limb that she was sitting on above them. She was still laughing at them, not because it was funny, but because all of Zuko's efforts to keep themselves safe from the water had failed miserably.

Mai's brand new school outfit was ruined, and Zuko's boots, the one his late cousin had given him to wear once he had outgrown them, were completely soaked and destroyed. None of it really mattered too much; it was just a rather sour way to end what was originally a fun game for the kids to play together.

Azula effortlessly leaped out of the tree, landing right next to the edge of the pond. She smirked at Mai and Zuko, and they glared icily back at her as they treaded water in the middle of the pond.

Azula rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and grinned innocently towards them. "You guys _know _that you're not supposed to hide together...see what happens when you break the rules?"

**Well, hope that was okay (feels good writing Maiko after my bff!Zutara slip-up yesterday hehe). Comments of any kind are appreciated ;)**


End file.
